Football - Pearson hails fantastic Foxes

Nigel Pearson heaped praise on his strikers after Leicester cruised to a 3-0 victory against Ipswich at the King Power Stadium.

It was the Foxes' 22nd win of the season and their 12th at home as they reinforced their position at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.

Leicester totally dominated the game, with Ipswich unable to cope with their slick attacking play that was spearheaded by the outstanding Jamie Vardy.

He terrorised the Ipswich defence with his blistering pace, latching on to a weak back pass by Jay Tabb in the 19th minute to go past goalkeeper Dean Gerken and score from a narrow angle.

It was Vardy's 12th goal of the season. And 11 minutes later he was involved in the build-up that brought David Nugent his 18th of the campaign. It was also one of Nugent's easiest as he tapped home Ritchie De Laet's cross from a couple of yards out.

The goal was Nugent's 50th for Leicester and his 14th in the 13 games he has played against Ipswich in his career.

With leading scorer David McGoldrick out with a knee ligament injury, Ipswich rarely posed a threat up front and Leicester added a third goal in the 88th minute when substitute Chris Wood fired home after being put through by Matty James.

It completed a comfortable victory for the Foxes and stretched their unbeaten run in the league to 13 matches.

Pearson said: "It was a good result and good all-round performance against a decent side. I was very pleased with the outcome.

"I am very pleased with Vardy's contribution to the side this season. When you compare his performances this season to last year, I think he has responded exceptionally well and I am very pleased for him because of that.

"All in all I think he is developing as a Leicester player and that is all I am really interested in. I know he is fulfilling what we thought he could achieve and I think that is very important.

"He takes the credit for what he has done. He's in the side because of his performances. Confidence is a huge part of an player's game.

"I know Nugent was looking forward to playing against Ipswich but I don't suppose they were too keen. And I was pleased for Wood to come on and get a goal after being out because of injury. It was good to have three strikers score the goals."

Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy described Leicester as " the best team by a street " in the Championship but suggested poor defending helped them to victory.

McCarthy said: "We were beaten by the better side that's for sure. But unfortunately for us we contributed to it and they don't need any help to win matches.

"Before they scored the first goal we had our best spell of the game and had had a corner kick, but went backwards instead of keeping on top of them. We end up being negative and give it away and they score.

"We had just got into the game but Leicester are better than us and we lost to a better team.

"They don't need any assistance to win games. They are the best team by a street in the Championship. There was talk that Leicester might be tired after the midweek match at Forest. But you can't tell me that Vardy and Nugent were tired. That's all psychological babble that they might be tired.

"They are top of the league, winning it by a street and you can cope with it when you have players like they have. They will win the league by a million miles."